6 Reasons Parents of AP Students Are Switching to Year-Round Tutoring

1. Reclaim more time from homework

Once your kid reaches high school, you may notice that they seem to be spending a lot more time on homework. That loss of free time becomes even more significant if they start adding AP courses to the mix. As one parent told us, “My kid is up past midnight and I can’t even check the work anymore.”

At The Princeton Review, we try to work smarter, not harder, and that means addressing the root problem as opposed to the symptom. By meeting briefly with an AP 5 Comprehensive tutor each week, students can clear up confusing topics in the same week that they’re taught.

The better you know how to do something, the less time it takes. That’s true for your kid, too: if they know the material, they’ll finish their homework faster.

2. Less cramming, more confidence

Too many parents summarize the entire AP experience based on that one single test in May. But it’s more than that: there are thirty-six weeks of classwork leading up to that. Every quiz, lab, and unit test is an opportunity to make sure your child is on track for a 5.

According to research from Gifted Child Quarterly in 2018, students in an AP course already tend to have more stress than their classmates. AP Comprehensive Tutoring works to reduce that stress, ensuring that students have a helpful, handy guide from the get-go, as opposed to starting after damage may have already been done.

Here’s how the program stays ahead of it:

• Syllabus-matched planning. Your tutor builds the study plan around your child’s schedule, so prep lines up with each upcoming quiz and test.
• Weekly 1:1 sessions. Tough topics get handled while they’re still fresh, before they snowball into the next unit.
• Practice tests with score reports. Weak spots show up on our practice tests first, where they can be addressed before they end up affecting your kid’s transcript.

What this means for you is that report cards aren’t a surprise: you’ll always know how the class is going.

3. You get to be the parent again

Parenting is already a job in of itself; there are few parents who are eager to also take on yet another role as a tutor (especially if they don’t already know the material). Worse, taking on that role can cause conflict between you and your kid:

• They see you hovering.
• They think you’re nagging about the homework.
• They feel like every conversation is a status check.

Instead of worrying or potentially making things tense, let the tutor handle the pacing, the planning, and the hard questions. You can be there for everything else your kid needs.

4. The method is built to be measured

For decades, our AP experts have been defining exactly what it takes to get a 5, the top score on each AP exam. The tutoring they do is built on that plan: come to every session, take every test, do the homework on schedule.

This means that your child will be able to take realistic practice AP tests before the real one. You and your child will have score reports showing what still needs work, and each session with a tutor will target those topics. By the actual AP in May, your child will have done this at least five times, with a coach, and that’s what makes them ready for a 5.

5. It builds better studying habits

While we do offer an excellent suite of AP Cram Courses, students generally find it easier and less stressful to spread their studying across an entire year as opposed to a handful of weeks. More importantly, meeting with a tutor once or twice a week for 90 minutes helps to establish better learning habits, not just for this AP course, but for everything your child studies.

Help your child have the successful school year that they deserve, as opposed to letting them leave it to the last minute. (You’ve seen how that tends to work out.)

6. Families trust it because the risk sits with us

The Princeton Review has been preparing students for standardized tests for more than 40 years. The tutors in this program are the senior bench: subject-matter experts who have taught their AP course for at least a decade.

And the guarantees remove the biggest reasons to hesitate:

• Score guarantee. Complete the program and score below a 5, and you get money back — a full tuition refund for a 3 or below, 25% for a 4.
• Tutor match guarantee. Not satisfied after the first session? We match your student with a new tutor and add a free session.
• 7-day enrollment window. Withdraw within 7 days of enrolling, before the first session, for a 100% tuition refund.